S3 E1 | Building a Non-Anxious Life with John Delony Pt. 1

Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and anxious? The majority of people have experienced some sort of anxiety throughout their life, whether they know it or not. People experience it in different ways and we do not have to let it define us. Join us as we interview John Delony, Ramsey Personality and bestselling author of Building a Non-Anxious Life, and be encouraged by the hope we all have!

2:00 What is anxiety?
8:00 We're overworking ourselves
10:30 Listen to your body
12:15 There is hope
23:45 What can you do to help others?
25:00 You're not a burden

#JohnDelony #Anxiety  #MentalHealth #StressManagement #Mindfulness #PersonalGrowth #Podcast #Hopeinreallife

Looking for practical next steps after listening to this episode? We've made a list for you below!  👇
Make Tomorrow Different
1. Prioritize other aspects of your health —physical, emotional, spiritual
2. When you're feeling anxious, stop and breathe deeply
3. Find a support system that will be there for you through the highs and lows

📚 Get the Book:
For more in-depth insights and tools, grab your copy of "Building a Non-Anxious Life" by John Delony.

👍 Like, Share, and Subscribe if you found this video helpful and know someone who could benefit from it.
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What is Hope in Real Life with Jason Gore?

Tomorrow can be different from today.

Our lives often leave us feeling hopeless—like nothing will ever change. But perspective is everything. When you know where to look, hope can be found in the spaces and places you least expect.

Join Jason Gore (Lead Pastor of Hope Community Church) for a fresh perspective, practical steps, and weekly encouragement that hope really is possible… even in real life.

We've created a world that, um,

our bodies weren't designed to live in.

And it, it's just trying

to get everybody's attention at the same time.

And we're, we've been taught

that if you're feel uncomfortable, that's the problem.

Solve for the discomfort.

So, numb it, uh, medicate it, bandaid over it, shut it up,

pray it away, whatever nonsense that is, like,

just get rid of the noise.

And we can do that now.

We have a lot of technology, a lot of medicine.

We can get rid of the noise and our houses are burning down

around us, our country's burning down around us.

Welcome to the Hope and Real Life Podcast with Jason Gore.

Our team is passionate

and committed to bringing you more hope in the everyday real

areas of your life.

If this conversation and content is valuable for you,

please do us a favor, like, subscribe, and even share.

You never know how valuable it could be

to share a little bit of hope with someone else.

Let's get the conversation started.

Well, welcome hope in real life family.

We have a treat here with us today.

Uh, this week we are talking about how

to build a non-anxious life.

And we have a very special guest here with us.

Uh, this gentleman,

and he'll probably laugh at the fact that he said,

gentlemen, he has two PhDs.

He is, uh, the host of the Dr.

John Delony show, co-host of the Ramsey Show, um,

has written a book recently called Building a Non-Anxious

Life Number one national bestselling book.

I'm telling you, the book has been valuable

for me in my life personally.

Uh, welcome to the show, Dr. John Delony.

Dude, what's up Jason? Thanks for, thanks

for opening your your house up, man. Yeah,

Absolutely. Uh, well

listen, we'll jump right in.

We had a little bit of time to talk

before we even got started.

Um, we, who knows where this podcast is gonna go given our,

uh, similar interests,

but we'll start out at least on topic.

Uh, and so we're talking about how

to build an non-anxious life.

We know that anxiety right now is just running rapid

in, uh, in our world.

Let's just start with a real simple question, uh,

to a subject matter expert.

What, what is anxiety?

Man? Anxiety is simply

a smoke detector in your kitchen telling you

that something's probably on fire.

And I wish it was more complicated than that.

We can, we can, I can throw all kinds

of different analogies.

It's the, it's the beeping in your car when

your seatbelt's undone.

It's the gas gauge. It's just an alarm system

that God designed inside of our bodies to let us know that,

hey, we're, your body has detected

something in the environment that's not safe. Yeah.

I love in your book how you actually, you're really clear

to highlight and you say it over and over again.

Hey, anxiety isn't the problem.

Not the problem. Yeah. It's just here to let us know,

uh, that something else is going on.

Maybe could you just talk for a moment,

maybe just about your personal experience

in life with anxiety?

Oh, yeah, dude, it buried me, man.

And I'm a big, I'm a 200 pounds, six foot two Texan man.

And my dad was a homicide detective

and a swat hostage negotiator.

We don't get those things.

And, um, as I, as I looked at the roots of it all,

my dad was, like I said, he was a homicide detective.

And then he quit halfway through my childhood to become a,

a, it was before this was an actual job,

but he was one of the pioneers of youth ministry,

and he became a youth pastor at a, at the time, at a church.

About a thousand members at the time was huge.

Now that's, you know, that's a good entry point

to a, to a church, right?

But, um, and I remember there was just seasons.

We didn't have enough money for groceries, man.

And we had one car that, that my parents shared.

We didn't have a lot. And I remember at a young age,

I remember thinking, if this is what the public thinks

of public servants, I'm out.

Yeah, I'm gonna go get security.

I'm gonna stop this tension that's always in my home, uh,

financial tension, relationship tension.

I'm gonna go make some money and get a bunch of titles.

And I went and did it, man.

I went and got it and knocked it out.

And I was working at a university.

And at the university, I had three different jobs there.

And everything about my identity was,

I was the guy that would say yes to everything.

Sunday School I'm in, Hey,

I need somebody to lead the college ministry.

I'm in, Hey, can somebody take over this other department?

Um, that leader just transitioned out.

I'm in, I'll take that too. I was associate dean.

I was a professor. I was part of a think tank

that was, and I was leading this.

And then my body just said, Hey, I quit. I'm out.

And I was also 24 7.

I was in hospitals dealing with kids' trauma

and calling parents and

telling 'em their kids have passed away.

I just, I, that was just the job.

Um, and my body just said, I'm out.

I've been trying to get your attention

for years and you're not listening.

And so I quit and I didn't have a psychology for that.

Yeah. Uh, uh, our stories are, are,

are kind of similar in that.

So I, my introduction to anxiety,

and I, you know, I, our listeners didn't know some, I mean,

I wrestled my whole life, wrestled

through college, came outta school.

And, and even in my family, like I was the guy, like if, if,

if something, if someone needed something,

if there were pressures that needed to be dealt with,

if there was conflict that needed

to be dealt with, that was me.

Ended up in ministry.

And about four years ago, I was serving

as the executive pastor here at, at Hope

and our founding pastor who had started the church about,

you know, 25 years prior, at the time 26.

And he, I mean, he just wasn't in a healthy place.

He was pretty open about that was going on sabbatical.

The plan was to go on sabbatical at Christmas,

come back at Easter.

And uh, I remember, so we kind of take the week off

after Christmas leading into New Year.

And then I remember my first day back in the office, uh,

that day, and I'll bet by lunchtime,

six different people would come by my office

and said, Hey, what are you gonna do

if he doesn't come back?

And I was like, what? I mean, if he doesn't come back,

of course he's gonna come back.

I mean, look, and you know what? Even if he doesn't,

you know, I mean, we know,

we learn all the right things to say.

I was like, even if he doesn't come back, I mean,

God loves this church more than we do.

He's got a plan, he's gonna, and

so the same thing happened throughout the day.

I got home that afternoon, that evening,

and at the time, uh, I believe my oldest son was 12,

and he came to me, he said, Hey, dad,

what do you think about going for a jog together?

I said, yeah, that sounds great. Uh, let's do it.

So I went in the bedroom, changed my shirt,

and I was about to walk outta the bedroom door.

And I was like, is my chest tight? This is weird.

And so I called my wife back to the back

and I said, I feel like my chest is tight.

Well, she says, well, you're not having trouble

breathing or anything like that already.

I was like, no, I'm not.

I think I'm having trouble breathing.

I don't know what's going on. This feels weird.

And so I laid down.

And then from that, from that moment on, uh,

for the next six months,

I was convinced that I had a heart problem.

I mean, I'd had a friend just a few years earlier

that had some open heart surgery stuff.

And, and so, I mean, I got every single test you could take

that culminated a few months later having a cat scan

with ink in my body

and with my cardiologist telling me, listen, um,

we've done everything we can do,

and I want you to know that your heart is just as healthy

as I assumed it was the first time I saw you.

You really need to take a good look at the stressors in your

life, to which I thought, who are you?

And how do you know what my life is like? But

Hey, this, what happened? You,

you committed the cardinal.

Like, uh, you wanna, you wanna wake God up?

You say to somebody, uh, yeah, no, no, no, don't worry.

God's got a plan. And he's like, uh, yeah, you ain't gonna,

God's got a plano.

That's what you did, man. And he is like, all right, yeah.

Here we go, brother. So,

So listen, so I mean, anxiety,

we hear people talking about it all the time.

We have people experiencing it at a time.

It seems like it's just being talked about more and more

and more, which is a good thing.

W why do you think it's seemingly impacting

so many more people right now?

I actually, you know what? I'm,

uh, I'll answer that question.

I'm, I'm starting to wonder if it is a good thing.

I'm starting to think that our obsession with labels

and pathologies, it's becoming an identity.

Mm-Hmm. And it's becoming an entry point into

every conversation we have.

And it's becoming an excuse to not do hard things.

We can talk about that later. Oh, that's good.

Um, I, I think at the end of the day, um,

we created a world that our bodies weren't designed

to live in, that just don't honor creation,

don't honor limitation, don't honor a healthy way to exist.

And, um, I, I don't believe, I'm not one of these, uh,

like guys with 12 YouTube followers

who does a show out of a trunk of a car.

I don't think we, this is all nefarious.

I don't think we're that smart. I think we all, um,

technology moved real, real, real fast.

And I think we all really loved

the advancements in problem solving, right?

Like food and water.

You can just touch a button on your phone

and food will show up right where you're sitting.

That's never happened in human history. Right?

That's amazing. And, um, our body's designed

to do really hard, stressful things for a while.

Carry hard things over long periods

of time, chase things down.

Um, we're not designed, our bodies aren't designed

to eat apples every day.

It's designed to eat apples once for a few weeks every year.

And it's amazing that we can have an apple every day,

and our body's like, whoa,

that's a lot of sugar and fiber guys.

Yeah. So all that to say is, I think in the,

in pursuing comfort, I love air conditioning.

I love leather seats in a car.

We've created a world that, um,

our bodies weren't designed to live in.

And it, it's just trying

to get everybody's attention at the same time.

And we're, we've been taught

that if you're feel uncomfortable, that's the problem.

Solve for the discomfort.

So numb it, uh, medicate it, bandaid over it, shut it up,

pray it away, whatever nonsense that is, like,

just get rid of the noise.

And we can do that now.

We have a lot of technology, a lot of medicine.

We can get rid of the noise and our houses are burning down

around us, our country's burning down around us.

So say there is, uh, a listener, uh, out there that

maybe their story is, is similar to what you said, you know,

I just, my body's shutting down.

Or maybe it's like me, like, what's going on?

What's this tension? What is

this, this panic that I'm feeling?

What's this anxiety that I'm feeling?

What, what would you recommend as a next step?

I mean, even in light of what you just said, I mean, what,

what would be steps someone should take to try to figure out

how to cope, how to deal, how to engage?

Often, um, people, uh,

are a little bit disoriented when I sit down with them.

One-on-one in person, because I usually will smile real big

and I'll tell 'em, Hey, your body's working perfectly.

And that's a, that's a disorient. Like what?

It's like, no, no, no. Your body's working perfectly.

We'll just use you, for example, imagine for a minute,

the God of the cosmos goes, uh, Jason,

I picked you to lead all these families

and people, you do HR stuff

and you're gonna get all the emails when the toilet on

floor three doesn't work.

Also, you gotta keep your marriage together

and your kids stay in shape.

And you should start a podcast too.

Of course, your body's gonna go, uh, uh,

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Right. It's just, it's working perfectly. Right?

Um, and so I think I want most people to exhale

and not sprint in the kitchen to shut the alarm off,

but instead exhale for a second and just look around

and go, huh, what's my body trying to protect me from?

What's my body figuring out

in the environment that's not safe?

Is it a my spouse? Is it my job?

Is it my kid walks in the front door and slams the door

and goes in their room and I can brush it off

and go, oh, those kids.

But dude, my guts know that my relationship with my kid is,

is pretty fractured right now.

Like, it's, it's a matter of asking your body.

It's still Ted lasso. Man, be curious.

Just be curious and don't, don't get angry.

Just be curious. Yeah.

Hope in real life family.

I want to take a moment and let you know about a resource

that we have for you, for your own personal development,

spiritual enrichment, and really a way for you

to find a bit more hope in real life.

We have a tool for you called the Hope in Real Life app.

It offers things like parenting tips, financial resources,

marriage insights, uh, if you're looking for it,

there's even Bible reading plans in there.

And there's a community

where you can even share prayer requests

and know that someone is praying for you for whatever it is

that you have going on in your life.

It's available right now in the Apple App

Store or in Google Play.

You can search hope in real life in both stores,

or you can use the download link that is in the show notes.

Remember, tomorrow can be better than today

and hope is possible even in real life.

So you wrote this book, uh, building a Non-Anxious Life.

And and you say in there may

that the reason why I'm writing this book is

'cause I do believe there's hope on the other side of,

of whatever it is, or even in the midst of it.

Um, can you just tell us just a little bit more about what,

what your hope was for in writing this book, and what if,

and again, uh, which I appreciate what you said

before we got on, like, Hey, I'm not selling anything.

Uh, but yeah, I mean, I think it's a valuable resource.

What, what was the heart behind?

What was your intention behind

writing the book to begin with?

Well, I, I've spent 20 years, um, working as a dean

of students and a professor,

and most of those years I spent working with kids with

learning exceptionalities, kids that needed extra time,

that had OCD, had a DH adhd, had al autism,

had all sorts of different challenges.

And, um, and then I would work with students

who had all sorts of struggles.

And then the families started circling.

And here's what became very clear over, over the last 10

or 15 years, very different than my first five years,

is this increasing, it's a cloud

that's hanging over us culturally,

and it's a cloud of disempowerment.

A cloud of this happened to you.

This is all you will ever be, or you did this thing.

This is all you're ever gonna be.

And go in the corner, sit down,

and somebody will come rescue you

because you are now less than you always will be.

Oh, your brain spins up when you get nervous. Yeah.

It's called a this. You have it go over there.

Um, you're, you're gonna be less than. Yeah.

And I watched these young people do

amazing things, and I watched people who lost everything.

I've hugged mothers in the night when their child has passed

away in the next room over.

Yeah. I just got done having, um, a meeting right

before lunch with a dad that I walked with him

and his wife when his

4-year-old daughter got pediatric cancer.

He walked together for a year until we had

a memorial service a few weeks ago.

Um, and he walked in and he's still standing.

I see this every single day,

and I just, there's not another voice to counter this idea

that all of y'all are terrible.

All of y'all are broken, everybody's worthless.

And if you have something, if you've accomplished something,

if God has blessed you with something, well, it's

'cause you ripped somebody else off.

I'm just sick of that voice.

And, um, I've seen when the worst happens,

people show up.

Yeah. And I, I used to just be staggered by the number

of resources people had in the middle of the night,

even when they said they had nobody.

All it to say is people keep showing up.

People keep showing up. And I believe it's light out there.

Yeah. And I think it's the,

the swimming upstream these days is,

I'm not gonna believe it's all coming down.

I don't, I don't buy it. The kingdom

of God is never in trouble.

Yeah. My system might be my, my, my dream

for my church might be my, whatever my,

my political party might be.

Kingdom if God's never in trouble. Yeah.

The light is always on. And so, man,

if I can bring people from a place

of you're less than you're dysfunctional too.

No, no, no, dude, your body's working perfectly.

You probably can't afford that car and that house,

and that job's pretty abusive.

Let's talk about that. You need to fix your marriage.

Let's talk about that dude.

Let's, let's, let's re interject some life into people

and give them some hope

and give them some energy so they can go get, go,

go, go change their life.

Yeah, man, that's so good.

You know, um, you know, our, our church, it, it's,

people often talk about like weekend services

and things like that, and hey, like, this sermon was great,

or that song was great,

or that moment in that service was great.

I'm telling you, you, I would trade all of those things.

There is nothing like a group of people and

and a lot of our listeners, you know, aren't believers.

Maybe they're question and spirituality,

but I would tell you, I would trade all of that for sure.

What I would say is the body of Christ,

the church actually showing up in people's lives

when there's a time of need.

I mean, that, that's when you know, okay, no, no.

There, there actually is hope in this world.

Uh, there's, there's people that are following after Jesus.

They're following after something bigger themselves,

and they actually want to bring hope.

Man, that's more powerful than any weekend service

that anybody's ever gonna see or experience. Well,

The, I may, I don't know if I put this in the book or not.

Um, it was my

wife's third miscarriage right in a row.

And this one was an ectopic pregnancy, and it ruptured.

And she was a west Texas hardcore farm girl.

She's pretty tough. I wouldn't fight her.

You probably shouldn't either. And,

but she had decided like, uh,

like this isn't happening.

And I, I reject the fact

that my body's doing this a third time.

And so she sat in the living room

and essentially she almost bled out in the house.

And I picked up my son from school,

and I, she drove herself to the er.

I had no idea what was going on. I was at work,

and I get this scream.

She's screaming into the phone, she's in so much pain,

and she's driving down the highway,

and I knew something was up.

I didn't realize how bad it was.

I walked into the hospital, I saw the head of the, um,

the university medical center ob GY,

and she was a colleague of mine.

And, um, I saw her, we call 'em in the,

in the emergency response.

In the crisis world, we call 'em crazy eyes when another

responder across the room can look at you in a way.

And, you know, instantly, oh, this scene is live. Yeah.

This is not a, um, this is not a, a, a finished scene.

And I remember holding my son's hand,

and he was about three at the time, maybe four.

And I remember exhaling,

and I thought to myself,

this is the last time I ever seen my wife alive

as they ran the head, ran her down the hallway.

Long story short, um, somebody came and picked up my son.

And when I called somebody to pick him up,

I guess somebody called, somebody who called somebody

a six foot four rancher from West Texas,

cowboy hat, boots, the whole thing.

He's also a children's author.

I was sitting in the, in the emergency room by myself,

just sitting in the corner all alone.

And, um, about an hour in, he walks in

and he sits down next to me.

And I just nodded to him. He nodded.

Neither of us said any words, none.

We sat there for about another hour.

The, um, doctor burst in the doors

and she said, your wife's gonna be okay.

We lost a baby, but your wife's gonna be okay.

And I looked over and I was sitting cross-legged,

and my big old tough west Texas rancher buddy reaches over

and grabs the toe of my shoe.

And he started crying tears I didn't have yet.

And I'm telling you, Jason, that's the closest

to Jesus I've ever been.

Wow. He said, no words, zero words, he just showed up.

I don't even know how he got there. I

don't know who called him.

He just showed up. And I'm with you, man.

I think the, um, I think we blow past,

there's no rich mullens quote, um, that Christians

so often over spiritualized Jesus.

And we just blow by the Hey dude, cup of water. Yeah.

Least of these widows, orphans. Go there. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

And man, if we had a team of people who showed up

with hurting 15 year olds and sick 40 year olds,

and brought cups of water, um,

I, I have a mentor of mine.

He's a, um, he's a experimental psychologist,

but he's a professor at, at a pretty renowned, uh,

faith-based faith-based university.

And he said the entire face of the Christian, um, uh,

church could be changed between the hours of 12:00 PM

and 1:00 PM on Sunday afternoons if Christians would go

to restaurants and would be the most obnoxious

tippers that ever existed.

Yeah. Yeah. And instead, in the restaurant industry,

nobody wants nobody Sunday afternoon shifts.

Yep. And so if they would just make it so insane

that those Christian people are so crazy

with their generosity, the whole thing

would change one hour.

But that's not considered Right.

That's not considered scientific enough,

or like religious enough or pious enough.

Yeah. And I'm telling you, man, the, the, the fruit is

so low hanging right now to give people hope

and, and to shine a light. It's pretty remarkable.

Yeah. I mean, so I'm gonna come back to something

that you said, but, but just, I, I think there's

so much low hanging fruit all over the place.

I mean, depending on whether you're listening to, you know,

to yourself, I mean, the, to actually do something

good or with high integrity,

or with a significant work ethic

or with consistency over time,

the bar is just so low right now. Um,

I told my son that recently, he's 14

and we were doing so, oh, he doesn't understand.

Like, he grew up when my wife and I had nothing.

We had no, no. Anything, anything, anything.

And it was a terrifying time.

And so, um, we've,

we've been really blessed the last few years,

but he still has that in his nervous system.

And so he was cleaning the, the like, literally shoveling

chacha out of the horse stalls at our neighbor's place out,

out in the woods in Nashville.

And he came home all just smelling terrible.

But he had a smile on his face that you can only get

after working really hard out in,

in the summer, out in the heat.

And I looked at him and I said, I need you to hear me.

The bar has never been lower in human history.

For a guy like you who's That's right.

To be a person of integrity, work really hard,

shake hands, follow God.

Like I, I told him I smile. I go, you're gonna own it all.

Yeah. And he's like, I don't want to dad. I don't want to.

But it's like, yeah, the bar is

so low to love people right now.

Yeah. It's really wild.

Hope in real life family. I wanna pause for a moment

and let you know about an opportunity

that I believe can help you find a bit more

hope in everyday life.

Listen, I know a lot of our viewers probably aren't a part

of a church, or maybe you gave up on the church a long time

ago and, and believe me, uh, possibly for good reason.

I understand. Uh,

but I don't want you to miss out on the hope

that you can actually experience by journeying alongside

of a group of people that really are seeking

God's best for their lives.

If you are the least bit curious, uh, we try to make this

as simple for you as we possibly can, wherever it is

that you digest digital content podcast, you can go

to the podcast store, you can check it out on YouTube

and just search Hope Community Church.

You'll be able to find our messages

there and check those out.

Or if you actually want to tune in during a service time,

uh, you can go to get Hope TV at four 15

or 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time,

or you can tune in at nine 30

or 11:15 AM Eastern Standard Time.

Again, that's at Get Hope tv.

We hope that you'll take a chance with us

and experience what it is God has for you in your life.

You're gonna find practical messages

that will help you find hope in

the everyday moments of your life.

Hope you'll check it out. I'm gonna go back to

what you were saying about, um, he didn't say a thing.

Uh, it's ironic you mentioned,

so I was ear earlier this morning.

Um, I was reading through Exodus

and I was, I was hit

by something that had never hit me before,

As we all do on a good Wednesday morning.

Oh, no.

So my Jason, me too. No,

No, no, no, no. My

kids and I listen, my kids and I

and my wife, we've committed to this, read

through the Bible in a year plan.

We've never done this before.

And, and please don't hear,

'cause I'm, I'm just, as a heads up,

I'm the one in the family who's like catching up regularly.

So I'm the one who's behind.

Um, but I was going back and looking at some notes,

but I was struck in Exodus 17.

There's this passage where the Israelites, they,

they're kind of drawn out into battle.

And you've got Moses, who's like,

he's the leader of the whole people, right?

So he's like, of course he's important.

And then you've got Joshua, who's like leading the

army on the front lines.

But in the story, for whatever reason, uh,

when Moses' hands are up in the air,

the Israelite army is winning.

But as he gets tired and his arms fall, they start losing.

And you see Aaron, Moses' brother come over when,

when Moses is tired.

And he says he gets him a rock for him to sit on,

and he stands beside him

and holds his arms up for him because he's tired.

And like, there's not a lot

of superhero stories written about Aaron, about the people

that just come along and help and don't say a word.

They just do what needs to be done,

whether it's helping the leader

or whether it's helping the person on the front lines.

And man, what a, and I was just, I just was left thinking,

man, what a story that would be if we just were a people

that were known for, Hey, what, what am I gonna,

what can I do to lift somebody's arms up?

Well, we have a culture that's so obsessed

with being the guy with their arms up.

Yeah. And, um, I think most

of us are caught off guard by you get put in that position.

Okay, raise your arms, go ahead.

And we don't realize how exhausting and tiring

and disorienting that is.

Yeah. And we didn't bother to do the work on the front end.

We just have a group of people go with us. Yeah.

And if Jesus needed a gang, I needed a gang.

And if Moses needed a gang, I need a gang. Yeah.

And, uh, and on the other side of it is, uh,

man, dude, we can go down a rabbit hole here.

You can edit this out. Um, it was super convicting to me.

Um, unfortunately, the part of my job working

with college students, man, I dealt with, um, students

who died by suicide a lot.

Yeah. And I did too many memorial services to count,

and I had to call too many moms and dads

and say, your kid's no longer alive to count.

And it was a, as I dug into,

why is this happening and why is this happening?

I always came back to this one sentence like, oh,

you thought the greatest gift you could give those

who love you was to not be here anymore.

Yeah. You thought you were a burden.

And we've created an ecosystem

where everybody thinks they're a burden.

Hey, I don't know. I don't wanna clown on your church

again, edit this part out.

But I haven't been to a church recently

that doesn't have either a paid position

or a committee whose job is to greet people.

Like we have to create that. That's a, that's a, a job.

Now, hospi like saying hello is designated for

what happened, right?

Like, like, and we, and here's the thing.

I think it comes from a good place.

I don't wanna bother anybody. I don't wanna be weird.

I don't wanna freak people out. I

don't wanna ask for a ride.

I'll just Uber. I don't wanna borrow

a cup of sugar and some eggs.

I'll just Instacart. And we have all these opportunities

to not engage with each other.

And at the end of the day, we start getting

heavier and heavier and heavier.

Dude, I'm just a burden man.

I don't wanna go over there and hold his arms up.

He may have, he didn't, he didn't, he may have a skin issue

and I don't wanna embarrass send him.

I don't wanna shame him. And then we just

watch the whole thing collapse.

Yeah. Instead of just saying, you know what?

I'm showing up man, if that guy don't want me here,

he could tell me, but I'm gonna go be a part

of loving him as best I can.

We're not a burden. None of us are. None of us are.

We can be annoying. Real annoying.

I could be, dude, I, trust me, my, I can be real annoying.

My wife tells me I'm a lot, but we're not a burden man.

Yeah. We're not. And the more I see myself as that way,

the more I shell up

and the more my body

screams, Hey, you gotta have connection.

And the more the guy who needs me just to sit

by him in the hospital, you know what I mean?

I would've, I would've got the note. I would've exhaled.

I would've got the message from the doctor.

I would've exhaled, I would've visited my wife,

and then I would've had to go home and be with my son.

And man, I would've held all of

that would've been locked inside me.

Yeah. And, um, thank god somebody showed up.

Well, what a fantastic interview so far with Dr.

John Delony. In fact, it is going so well.

We don't want to cut it as short as our normal podcast.

We have decided to extend this over into two episodes.

So we're gonna press pause here

and we will pick it back up in the next episode.

Thanks for tuning in. Keep sharing hope.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode

of The Hope in Real Life podcast.

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